All You Need to Know About Juicing and Weight Loss

If you want to lose weight quickly, you might be tempted to try a juice fast. While many people swear this is how they lost weight, a juice fast is not the best option if you want to keep the weight off long term.

You may not want to hear this, but the only way to lose weight permanently is by following a healthy diet while reducing calories.

That said, juicing can be an excellent way to get more vitamins and minerals in your diet. Let’s take a closer look how you can incorporate juicing into your lifestyle in a healthy way.

The Risks of Juice Fasts

Following a juice fast will almost always result in quick weight loss, but it’s not actual weight (read: fat) you’re losing – it’s muscle and water. Moreover, you are more than likely to regain the weight you lost and some more!

As you keep your calorie intake low, your metabolism slows down to conserve energy. This actually makes it even harder to lose weight during and after the fast.

Losing Fat

The safe rate at which you can lose weight is about 1/2 to 1 kilogram a week as recommended by health experts. You can achieve that by lowering your calorie intake between 250 to 500 calories a day.

If you don’t know how many calories you consume each day, it’s best to track what you’re eating over a seven-day period. You can then calculate the average number of calories you consume and subtract 250-500 calories from that number.

If you want to succeed in losing weight, it’s recommended you continue to track your food and calorie intake through programs like MyFitnessPal and others.

Adding Juicing to Your Diet

Many people don’t realize this, but when you’re trying to lose weight, all calories count. It doesn’t matter if you’re eating or drinking them, the number of calories you consume determines whether you lose weight or not.

If you want to add juicing to your diet regime, make sure you focus on vegetable juices rather than fruit drinks. Green juices are low in calories but high in nutrients, and they are super delicious! To add more flavor to your vegetable juices, add low-calorie fruits like kiwis, apples, or citrus fruits, but make sure you keep the juices strictly veggie-based. Carrots, spinach, tomatoes, kale, and cucumbers make tasty juices.

Following a Balanced Diet

As mentioned, juicing is a great way to add more vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients to your diet. But research shows that fruit and vegetable juices are also not as filling as whole, unprocessed foods.

This is why you should aim for balance and eat a variety of foods from all food groups:

Picking the Right Juicer

If you’re new to juicing, you might not know that there are different types of juicers available. To make matters even more confusing, all of them come with their own characteristics when it comes to the type of fruits and veggies they juice best. For example, centrifugal juicers work best with hard produce, like apples, celery, etc. Masticating juicers (also known as cold press juicers) are more suitable for juicing leafy greens like spinach, kale, and more. Check out this guide of best juicers by Wicked Reviews to find the right juicer.